Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon
A/N: This story is taking longer than I thought.
Chapter 12
"Here we are in the depths of the Digital World." Connor kept his camera rolling as he scanned through the scene. "Everyone's tired and scared. We just lost Sam to an evil Digimon, our parents aren't here, and we're kind of hungry too."
Kim giggled, making everyone stare at her. "What can possibly be so funny?" Aika asked, obviously not amused. "My brother is in the hands of… What was his name again?"
"NeoDevimon." Hitomi answered.
"Right." She continued. "And you have the courage to laugh?"
"Calm down, Aika." Poromon squeaked.
Kim nodded. "I do." She said.
"Well, stop."
"No." Kim crossed her arms. "I'm sick of you telling me what to do! My laughter shouldn't be ruled by you!"
"I'm your camp leader! If I want you to stop laughing, stop laughing!"
"Your leadership ended at camp!"
Aika unfurled her fists and slapped her cheek. "I'm tired of you always arguing with me!"
"Hey!" Yokomon huffed when everyone else gasped.
Kim's eyes widened as she nursed her cheek. It was so unlike her to slap someone. It also wasn't unlike Kim to stand there and take it, so she shoved her. Then, the two shared a dance of hair pulling, slapping, and clawing.
Yokomon and Poromon started bouncing about. "Come on!" They said. "Don't fight! We're friends!"
Josh, Connor, and Makoto stared with wide eyes. "Break it up!" Yukio and Shoji said, about to pull them apart, but Josh and Makoto held them back.
"Are you getting this?" Makoto whispered to Connor.
He nodded. "Uh huh."
"Alright, break it up!" Daisuke said, getting in between them. "We're not going to solve anything by fighting. We're not going to find anyone by fighting. And we're not going to beat NeoDevimon by fighting each other!"
"Then what are we going to do, Mr. Leader?" Kim asked.
"Well, that's obvious." Aika said. "We're going to find Sam first."
Eriko stepped forward. "That's wrong. I believe we should go find out how to use these crests." She said. "I mean, NeoDevimon is obviously at the ultimate level, so we should be at his level to beat him."
Hitomi nodded in agreement. "Then it's settled!" Mel said with much enthusiasm. Then he turned to Daisuke. "Right?"
He nodded. "So, now we have to go to Gennai and ask him how it works since our parents aren't here. Let's do it!"
"Or…" Tanemon said. "We can turn around and reunite with Sam!" Everyone turned in confusion only to see Sam and Minomon standing there.
"Sam!" Everyone exclaimed.
He smiled. "Hi, everyone." He greeted with a wave. Even if his eyes were on the group, his mind was on the eleven crests around their necks.
"What happened?" Eriko asked. "How'd you escape?"
Sam shrugged. "Oh, you know…" He trailed off. "Anyway, before I left, NeoDevimon said something about the crests."
"What about them?" Hitomi asked.
He looked around to make sure no one could hear him. "He said that it will only work if one person holds them all. And since, NeoDevimon kidnapped me, I must be important enough to hold them all."
The group looked at each other and back at Sam. "That doesn't sound right." Mel said. "From my father's stories, they all kept their crests to themselves."
"Well, fine." Sam crossed his arms. "If you're not going to hand them over, I'm just going to have to take it from you." He took out his digivice. "Who's up first?"
"Minomon digivolve to… Wormmon!"
"Come on, Sam." Makoto said, obviously not amused with his arms crossed. "You're not going to take the crests from any of us. We don't need a dramatic showcase. If I wanted one, I would've stayed with my mom."
"So you're first?" Sam asked. "Or are you scared that I'll win?"
Makoto turned his nonchalant demeanor into an aggressive one. "Yeah, I'll take you on. Only so you could shut up!" He took out his digivice. "Let's go, Tanemon!"
"Tanemon digivolve to… Palmon!" She digivolved. "You need to be grounded! Poison Ivy!"
"Silk Thread!" Wormmon shot out some silk, stopping the vines in mid air.
"Are we really doing this?" Makoto asked as the two Digimon kept fighting. "This is ridiculous!"
Sam yelled "I need the crests!"
As the two continued fighting, Hitomi was busy doing some research. Eventually, she stopped and tapped Aika's shoulder. "According to this," she told her, "Gennai's not too far from here."
Aika took a look at her computer. "Good work!"
Daisuke took a look from the other side. "Okay, you and Eriko take Shoji and Yukio to go find him. Get some answers and come back here."
"Great! An adventure!" Motimon cheered before the others began to leave.
Daisuke watched them go before turning back to the battle. "Okay, Sam. You want a fight? We'll give you one! Go, DemiVeemon! Digivolve!"
"DemiVeemon digivolve to… Veemon!" Then, just as quickly, he performed his first move. "V-head butt!"
Meanwhile, the other four raced to see Gennai as they managed to get their way through the forest. They stopped when they came across a lake. "What now?" Eriko asked.
"According to the map, he's under there." Hitomi told her.
"Just great. I can't swim."
"Me either." Shoji pouted.
"I can!" Yukio said, taking off his shoes and shirt.
"Wait, Yukio!" Hitomi said. "You don't know if the water's safe or how deep it is or…!" Before the next thought came up, Yukio already made a huge splash in the water.
Just as quickly, he popped his head out of the water. "It's cold!" He yelled. As if that were the cue, the water actually started opening up! Yukio ended up falling in and landing on a flight of stairs, still shivering from the cold water.
Once the water was fully separated, the flight of stairs was visible along with something else at the end. The others ran down the stairs to meet up with the boy. "Are you okay, Yukio?" Koromon asked.
He sneezed in response. "It's…really cold!"
"Yukio, we can't risk anymore impulsive behavior, okay?" Hitomi asked.
"W…what's im…im…impulsive m…mean?"
"Never mind."
"What is all of the noise about?" A voice called out from the distance. The kids turned around only to see, none other than, Gennai! "And what happened to him?" He pointed to Yukio who sneezed again.
"He tried to swim to your place." Eriko explained.
Gennai laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised. Your father had that sort of impulsive behavior too. Come on, let's get you dried off."
"We also came to ask you about the crests." Eriko said as they started their walk inside. "How do we use them? What makes them glow? How come some don't glow at all? How come…?"
"Please, Eriko," Gennai laughed, "save your questions for when we actually get inside!"
"But I have one more question. Where is inside?"
"Over there." He pointed forward to his nicely placed house. The kids gasped as they were taken inside. The garden was huge along with the pond he had.
"It's beautiful." Shoji said looking around at all of the trees and nicely placed rocks. "It's like Great Grandma's place!"
"I assume so." Gennai nodded. "Now, let's go inside." He led them into the house just in time for the water to return to its down position. The kids gasped as the fish swam by. Finally, Hitomi was the first to pull her head away from the window.
"Gennai, we need to know about these crests. Is there a certain code we have to crack to unlock the powers of the crests?" She asked.
He sat down at the table in the center of the room followed by everyone else. "To unlock powers, you must first unlock yourselves. You see, your crests hold a special trait that only you and your parents have."
"But what about mine?" Eriko asked, taking her crest and tag from around her neck. "Dad never had a crest. How come I have this one?"
Gennai took it from her and examined it. "This is a new one for sure!" He said. Then, he frowned. "There's something wrong with this."
The kids leaned in. "What?"
"This crest…it's not real."
"What?!" They all exclaimed.
"So I'm never going to digivolve to ultimate?" Upamon frowned.
"No fair." Eriko pouted, crossing her arms in obvious disappointment. "Of all the crests, mine had to be the fake."
"What about mine?" Hitomi handed it to him.
Shoji and Yukio passed their crests down as well. "Try ours too." Shoji said.
Gennai carefully studied the three crests. "This is odd…" He said, taking a closer look. "None of these are real."
"How is that even possible?" Hitomi asked. "You said that our parents activated them again. We saw the lights."
Gennai frowned at the crests before him. "I know. I also saw the lights. My theory is that they only gave off enough energy to create the fake crests. This must be only a small part of their power."
"Gennai," Eriko said, "you said that the original eight gave the energy back a few years after they got them. How come they couldn't give off their full energy this time?"
He laughed. "Give them a break, Eriko! It has been 27 years, several children later, and they're tired from worrying about you kids."
"Right." Eriko said.
"Well," Gennai quickly added, "it is just a theory. I also think someone's behind all of this just to throw everyone off."
Shoji stood up. "Then let's go tell the others that NeoDevimon's no good!"
"He's behind this mess, totally!" Yukio added.
Hitomi and Eriko gave a nod in agreement. "Let's go!"
"Be careful, DigiDestined." Gennai said. "I have no idea what NeoDevimon's motives are, but they can't be good."
()()
"Got it!" Sam cheered as he managed to get Makoto's crest from around his neck. At the time, his body was passed out on the ground next to Palmon.
"That's the last crest you're going to take!" Veemon told him.
"Yeah!" Daisuke said. "Take us on next!"
Sam looked up at his newly evolved Stingmon.
"And you can't throw rocks to knock us out either. This has to be a good clean fight. What you did to Makoto and Palmon was just wrong!"
Sam didn't say anything.
"Let's make this interesting while we're here." Daisuke said. "If you give back the crest now, we won't fight. But if you don't, I'll throw you into a tree while the Digimon battle!"
He frowned. "You wouldn't dare."
"I can't really hit you only because you're so short that I wouldn't be able to reach you. So that's the next best thing."
Sam balled up his fists. "There's no way you'll throw me in a tree! But, I am willing to battle at your level."
"No way!" Everyone turned over to Kim. "How about you pick on someone relatively your size? Let's go, Birdramon!"
Sam didn't say anything as Kim's Digimon digivolved.
"What is it? Cat got your tongue? Or are you just scared you'll get beat by a girl?"
Sam frowned. "Stingmon, take care of Birdramon, will you?" And without another word, the two Digimon went into a head on clash.
"Go, Josh!" Aika shouted. "While he's distracted!"
Sam turned around and saw Josh charging for him at full speed. Before he could jump out of the way, or react for that matter, Josh tackled him down into the ground. "Would you get off of me?" Sam shouted.
Josh grabbed both of the crests from him. "If you want to play games, Sam, we'll play. But leave our Digimon out of it!"
"Your Digimon are worthless and need to be taught a lesson!"
"It's like I said." Josh said. "If you want to play, let's play."
Sam frowned but it didn't shake Josh at all as he frowned back. Finally, Sam broke the staring contest when he gasped and pointed above them. "Look up there!"
"I'm not falling for it." He stood up anyway.
"What is that?" Daisuke asked as everyone paid attention to what was on top. They all stared in fright as they saw NeoDevimon flying towards them. "Everyone stay quiet. Maybe he won't hear us."
The children and Digimon watched as NeoDevimon slowly made his way past the bunch. "Where is he going?" Mel asked. Then he gasped. "He's probably making his way towards Eriko and the others!"
"Oh no!" Kim exclaimed. "Shoji!" The two of them took off running.
"Guys! You don't know what you're getting yourselves into!" Daisuke shouted.
"I'm going too." Josh said and followed them.
Daisuke stomped his foot. "Great. Now we have over half of our team missing."
"That's not the objective right now." Connor told him. "Josh has some of the crests. We have to keep Sam here."
"What better way to do that than another battle?" Patamon said. "Let me give it a go!"
"No!" Aika stepped in front of them. "No more fighting!"
"But, Aika, why not?"
Instead of Connor getting an answer right away, Aika held his hands. "Please, no more fighting. He's my brother."
"And he's no good!" Daisuke said. "Look at what he did to Makoto. He's trying to take our crest to help the enemy!"
Sam smiled before charging towards them and snapping the crests from their necks. "OW!" The three cried.
"Try and stop me!" Sam laughed as he jumped into Stingmon's arms. "Let's get out of here!"
"After him!" Daisuke shouted right when Makoto woke up.
"Let's go!" Makoto said.
"Hawkmon digivolve to…Aquilamon!"
"Patamon digivolve to…Angemon!"
"Come with us." Aika told Makoto and Daisuke. "ExVeemon and Togemon can't fly."
They nodded and Makoto jumped into Angemon's arms and Daisuke jumped onto Aquilamon's back. "Let's go get our crests back!"
Trivia: I believe that Kim's a nervous laugher.
A/N: I hope you like it!
